Figures released by the Netherlands’ Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) show a new milestone being reached: immigration has taken the country’s population to a new, record total of 18 million people.
According to Party for Freedom (PVV) leader Geert Wilders, the current number of inhabitants is “crazy”:
18 million people on a small piece of land. Last year, on balance, 142,000 more immigrants. While there is a huge shortage of housing, healthcare, police. Crazy. Queen Juliana said it back in 1980: the Netherlands is full. Now chock full.
The new figures also point to the speed of population growth, with the 17 million mark reached only eight years ago in 2016. The new total, announced on Thursday August 15th, and based on an additional million people, was reached roughly twice as quickly.
Growth in the recent period is entirely attributable to migration from abroad; the Netherlands’ low birth rate does not even begin to compensate for the number of Dutch deaths (what demographers call the ‘replacement rate’).
